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Center That Treats Priests Responds to 3 Abuse Suits

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This tiny town in the mountains of north-central New Mexico is a quiet close-knit community where the weekly Saturday night dance at the town watering hole, Los Ojos Bar, is the biggest event.

For a small town there are many churches and, up and down the main street, a handful of religious retreats. Among them are the Bodhi Mandala Zen Center, a convent of the Order of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood, and one that is attracting attention, a retreat and treatment center for Roman Catholic priests called the Order of the Servants of the Paraclete.

It was to this center that James A. Porter, a former priest recently accused of molesting children in three states, was sent in 1967 for treatment. As part of his recovery he was assigned in 1968 to the post of substitute pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Truth or Consequences, where, three lawsuits filed in the summer contend, he molested three altar boys.

Staff members at the treatment center would not discuss Mr. Porter's case or their therapies.

But in response to the suits in state court the order said that at the time of Mr. Porter's stay the order had relied on consultants to advise on the treatment for patients like him. The order said Mr. Porter had "obtained psychiatric treatment from a psychiatrist in Albuquerque who provided such services to the servants," and it described the center in 1968 as "a retreat house at which priests and brothers could voluntarily live in a spiritual community to renew themselves in the priesthood."

The order now has an in-house program and staff psychologists and psychiatrists for priests with problems like drug or alcohol abuse and, the order said in its response, rare instances of pedophilia.

In a letter to the residents of Jemez (pronounced HAY-mez) Springs posted at the City Hall after the disclosures about Mr. Porter, the head of the center, Father Liam, said:

"Before any priests or brother enters our program here, he undergoes a rigorous preliminary evaluation. We take great care to determine if we can be of real service to this person, and to assure that he is of no potential harm to you, our neighbors. If a person is determined to be of potential harm, we would refer him to another facility better equipped to handle him."

A version of this article appears in print on October 12, 1992, on Page A00011 of the National edition with the headline: Center That Treats Priests Responds to 3 Abuse Suits. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe